It's a corrupted registry, I'm 99% sure of it. My mom's computer did this and the only cure was a reinstall of Windows. If you reinstall into the same folder as the original Windows, you won't need to reformat first. You will need to reinstall your programs, though, because the old registry that used to store their settings will be gone.

This is a very good reason to keep a backup copy of "reg.dat" on a recordable CD (even if you don't keep a complete backup of your computer), so you can simply replace it by swapping your hard drive into another computer and copying the backup onto your comatose hard drive.

ok, thanks for the answer. I have no idea how all of a sudden a quick power outage could have done this. I higly doubt that its any shorted out hardware, cuz everything runs and boots just fine.

If I reinstall window, without reformatting, I will be safe on keeping data such as pictures and such, correct?

I tried to do recovery console thing but had no idea what I was doing, haha. So I was trying to get my XP cd to work to repair windows or reinstall, but my disc kept giving me a "data.sys" error or something like that. I am taking it to a computer shop tomorrow just to double check and hopefully if its just windows, I'll get a new copy of XP.